Chapter 57

Chapter 57

Since Qi Cheng mentioned in the morning that his vision had become slightly clearer, Lu Yuan kept glancing his way.

Even when she brought him water for washing, she purposely handed it slightly off-target to test him.

Qi Cheng narrowed his eyes slightly, hesitated for a moment, then reached out to grasp the bamboo cup.

When he took hold of it, his hand was still a little off.

Still, Lu Yuan considered this progress—previously, she had to place it directly into his hand.

After washing up, Qi Cheng grabbed a bucket to fetch water. Lu Yuan said, "Wait until we get back from the clinic; I’ll go with you."

Qi Cheng replied, "I want to try fetching water on my own. Aren't you supposed to count the coins? Go ahead and count them first."

Lu Yuan needed to both count and string the coins to take to the clinic and pay Qi Cheng’s medical bill.

Hearing this, she asked doubtfully, "Are you sure you can manage? Don’t drop the bucket into the well—we paid good money for it."

Qi Cheng was silent for a beat before saying, "I could fetch water even with my eyes closed. And even if I fell in—"

Before he could finish, she quickly stepped forward and covered his mouth.

Qi Cheng was momentarily stunned.

Having been rescued from the water once before, Lu Yuan couldn’t bear to hear him say such things. Anxiously, she exclaimed, "Pah! Don't say such things! If the bucket falls, it falls. Why say things like that?"

She cut him off, then released her hand and said with mild irritation, "Go ahead, come back soon. If you can’t fetch the water, don’t force it."

Usually, she'd tie the bucket, and he would pull it up.

She figured he only needed to find the well, feel for the rope, and tying a bucket would be easy enough.

Qi Cheng snapped out of it, though his mind was somewhat troubled.

"I’ll be back soon."

With that, he turned and made for the yard without looking at her.

His vision was blurry; he couldn’t see small objects underfoot, and the doorframe ahead appeared with multiple blurry images, so he walked slowly.

Lu Yuan watched him step out of the yard and, after a short while, tiptoed to the door, peeking toward the well.

She saw Qi Cheng walking slowly along the alley.

Once he was out of sight, she quietly followed him.

Watching from afar as he successfully drew water, she quietly sighed in relief. When she saw him untie the rope to carry the water back, she turned and hurried back.

Lu Yuan returned home, counting and stringing coins as she entered the house, but she kept listening for any sounds from the yard.

Halfway through counting the coins, she heard noises outside—and then lost count.

Qi Cheng carried the water to the water vat, removed the wooden lid, and poured it in.

He looked toward the house and said, "No rush with the counting. I’ll go fetch another bucket of water."

He didn’t bring up her following him earlier.

Having spent years hunting in the mountains, his hearing had always been sharp. After losing his sight, it had become even better.

Even though she had followed him stealthily from a distance, walking softly, he had noticed.

She was just concerned about him going to fetch water alone.

It was as if she saw him as a child learning to walk.

Thinking this, Qi Cheng couldn’t suppress a smile.

With a smile on his face, he headed out again.

Lu Yuan had already followed him once and was no longer worried, so she left him to it.

She counted the coins she'd strung once more.

Just as Lu Yuan finished counting and tying the coins, Qi Cheng returned with the second bucket of water.

She placed all 250 strung coins into a money bag, walked out holding it, and praised enthusiastically, "You’re amazing! Your eyes have only just improved, and you’ve already fetched two buckets of water in such a short time."

Qi Cheng burst out laughing, raising a hand to cover the amusement in his eyes.

Lu Yuan asked curiously, "What are you laughing at? I just praised you—are you that happy?"

Qi Cheng reined in his smile and slowly shook his head. Of course, he couldn’t say that she really seemed to be coaxing a child.

Lu Yuan found this odd and muttered to herself about his odd behavior.

Then, her gaze fell on his eyes, and she said, "The doctor didn’t specify when you can stop keeping your eyes covered. You should still wear the blindfold."

Qi Cheng’s smile faded, and he nodded, going inside to fetch a cloth strip to cover his eyes.

The black cloth covered his eyes, allowing only a faint glimmer of light to seep through.

Having adapted to darkness over the past half year, it didn't bother him.

He deftly picked up his walking stick and said to her, "Let’s go."

Lu Yuan took the lock, and once outside, locked the yard gate.

The door to the shop wasn’t locked—it could only be secured with a tight knot. They would need to swing by the west market later to buy a new lock.

At the clinic, Lu Yuan paid the outstanding medical bills for the past three days and also paid the fifty-copper-coin acupuncture fee for that day.

After settling the bill, Lu Yuan found the doctor and proposed, "I’ve set up a small stall at the night market—it’s only been open for two days. After paying the past few days’ and today’s fees, I’m running low on money. Also, I won’t be setting up the stall today, so could I delay tomorrow’s payment until the day after?"

The doctor, having heard from the medical assistant that the couple had settled their previous debt, knew they were trustworthy and capable of paying. He agreed, "Then you can settle every two days from now on."

Lu Yuan said brightly, "Thank you, Doctor."

After arranging the payment, Lu Yuan told the doctor, "My husband said this morning that he can see more clearly now."

Hearing this, the doctor had Qi Cheng remove the eye covering and carefully examined his eyes. Indeed, they were slowly regaining focus.

The doctor held up his hand and asked, "How many fingers do you see?"

Qi Cheng narrowed his eyes, staring for a moment, and said, "I'm seeing double—it’s not clear. It looks like three, but also like four."

Lu Yuan quietly observed the two fingers the doctor was holding up.

His double vision was still pretty bad.

The doctor pulled back his hands and said, "This is actually better than I expected."

"I originally thought we would need acupuncture daily for three to five more times before switching to every other day, but based on his current progress, we’ll do two more days in a row of acupuncture, followed by five sessions every other day, and then see how it goes. If he recovers quickly, he might not need more needles."

If the treatment proceeded as the doctor described, not only would they save some money, but he wouldn't have to endure as much.

Even though acupuncture isn’t painful, getting needles stuck in your head day after day would eventually become unbearable for anyone.

After Qi Cheng’s acupuncture session, he asked the doctor, "Can I remove the eye band now?"

The doctor replied, "You don’t need to wear it in the evening or morning, but the daylight is too harsh, so you'll still need to wear it. If the cloth feels too thick, you can switch to a thinner, see-through cloth."

Lu Yuan nodded along. She got that his eyes needed to heal after such a bad injury.

It’s just that they didn't have sunglasses back then—otherwise, they wouldn’t have to bother with an eye band that blocked his vision.

After leaving the clinic, Lu Yuan said, "All the money we brought out today has been spent on your treatment. After tomorrow’s acupuncture session, we’ll go to the fabric shop to pick out some gauze that light can pass through."

As for the locks for the shop and the backyard gate, they couldn’t afford them now. Copper locks definitely wouldn't come cheap.

Qi Cheng responded, "It’s fine if we don’t buy them. After all, I don’t need to wear the cover at night, and I can help you mind the stall."

Lu Yuan replied, "We should still buy them when we can. At least during the day, you’ll be able to see where you're going."

Back at their rented courtyard, Lu Yuan asked him to get some rest while she took a stroll around the neighborhood to see what shops might have a stone mill—like noodle stalls, noodle shops, or pastry shops.

Their backyards likely had stone mills.

She would make a mental note of where they were and ask them tomorrow before we set up to see if she could rent one.

She wouldn’t be selling soy milk tomorrow night, so there was no need to ask today.

The reason she couldn’t sell soy milk yet wasn’t that she couldn’t afford the ingredients, but that she couldn't afford tables, chairs, bowls, or spoons yet.

Soy milk paired with fried dough sticks—it was unlikely that city people would be willing to eat standing up like people in the town did.

Qi Cheng’s four days of acupuncture and medicine had already set us back over two hundred wen. What remained was only enough for tomorrow’s stall ingredients and rental fee, plus money for food and rice for the next two or three days.

Still, this was a little better than before we started the stall.

After setting up the stall again tomorrow night, we'd have a little more to work with.

With their money going out faster than it comes in, the idea of bringing the elderly and children to the city seemed pretty unrealistic.

Only when Qi Cheng no longer needed acupuncture, saving fifty wen a day, would they truly start earning money.

Lu Yuan took a walk and noted the locations of two pastry shops and a red thread noodle shop.

In the evening, as the sky grew dim, Qi Cheng removed his eye band and went to get water for bathing.

He made three trips. Lu Yuan, seeing he wasn’t red in the face or breathing hard, didn’t stop him.

Having worked as a nurse for a year, she had never seen a patient with such a strong constitution.

She felt that if it weren’t for his poor eyesight holding him back, he could probably even go outside the city to gather two bundles of firewood for her from the unowned hills.

Lu Yuan glanced at the meager pile of firewood in the corner, estimating it would only last for one more stall night. They’d have to buy more firewood at the West Market the morning after tomorrow.

Lu Yuan bathed before dark, while Qi Cheng, unbothered by the dim light, was fine.

After stepping out of the small bathing area, she got the water ready for Qi Cheng and let him carry it in himself.

As Qi Cheng carried the water into the bathing area and lowered the straw curtain, he said to her, "Put your clothes in the basin. I’ll wash them later."

Lu Yuan beamed, "You said it—I didn’t ask you to."

Qi Cheng just gave a "hmm."

Lu Yuan hurriedly washed her undergarments, hung them on the clothesline in the yard, then placed her outer clothes in the basin. She slipped into her shoes, dashed into the room, and immediately climbed onto the bed, wrapping herself in the quilt.

The days were growing colder. It seemed she really would have to stuff reed fluff into their clothing for warmth.

She’d do it when she had time the day after tomorrow.

Listening to the sounds outside, within moments, Qi Cheng emerged from the bathing area, followed by the sound of clothes being washed.

Lu Yuan couldn't help but grin at the sound.

It was wonderful not having to wash clothes. If only she had a couple of novels and some snacks, life would be truly comfortable.

If this era had potatoes, she could fry some potato chips, but she hadn’t seen any in town or the city—probably they hadn't made their way here from abroad yet.

Although the current dynasty wasn’t one from the history books, it resembled the Song Dynasty.

The dietary habits and the practice of night markets were similar to those of the Song Dynasty.

If things played out the same way, potatoes would likely only be introduced in the next dynasty after this one. So, potato chips would remain just a pipe dream for now.

As Lu Yuan’s mind wandered, Qi Cheng finished hanging the clothes and returned to the room.

She shifted over and asked, "Are you going to sleep?"

Qi Cheng shook his head. "I slept a lot today. I’m not tired. You go ahead."

Lu Yuan said, "Then I’ll sleep first. Come up whenever you’re tired."

Qi Cheng just made a sound of agreement and sat down on the stool.

Lu Yuan put out the lantern and lay down.

Having the bed to herself felt surprisingly spacious and comfortable.

Once they had more money, they’d need to replace the bed or add a bamboo bed—being crammed together was just too uncomfortable.

Another item was added to Lu Yuan’s spending list.

Before setting up the stall the next day, Lu Yuan asked three shops. Only two had stone mills, and just one was willing to let her use theirs.

The cost was three wen per half-hour, with a maximum of one hour on double-numbered days.

Doing the math, one hour would only be enough to grind six or seven jin of wet soybeans—about two jin of dried beans after soaking.

Two jin of beans would yield only around thirty bowls of soy milk.

The cost would be sixteen wen, and she’d probably only make about twenty wen.

Not having a stone mill is really inconvenient, but stone mills are expensive, and right now, we definitely can't afford one. So even if we only earn twenty coins, it's still a profit.

After agreeing to come back on the next even-numbered day during the late afternoon to use the mill for soy milk, Lu Yuan returned home to wash up and prepare for the stall.

As usual, Qi Cheng carried all the heavy items out, and then Lu Yuan brought out the oil.

She didn’t even need to call out to customers this time—as soon as the stall was set up, people were already waiting for her to fry the fried dough sticks (youtiao).

The wind was quite strong tonight; the lanterns at the entertainment district were swaying, and the flags of some shops or stalls were fluttering wildly.

There were far fewer people walking around the night market compared to the last time.

All evening, Lu Yuan's business was slower than the previous session. It wasn’t until the local patrol signaled the curfew with a gong that the two of them packed up and headed home.

Back home, Lu Yuan didn’t ask in detail how much they had earned. Instead, she soaked her feet while threading the copper coins onto a string.

After stringing them, she couldn’t quite bring herself to smile.

"We stayed out longer tonight than last time, but we still made about twenty coins less—only two hundred and seventy-three coins. And we still have quite a bit of unused dough left. I’ll steam it later, and we can have it tomorrow."

Qi Cheng wasn’t particularly fussy about food and nodded in agreement.

After a moment’s thought, Lu Yuan said to him, "How about we set up a morning market in the East Market on even-numbered days and rest on odd-numbered days? What do you think?"

The weather will only get colder, and business will likely be worse than tonight. Eventually, not only the night market but even the morning market will probably see fewer people.

Besides, Qi Cheng’s eye treatment is costing us a fortune. If we don’t take advantage of the weather before it gets too cold to earn more, I’m afraid that once it turns colder, the night market will have fewer people, and we’ll earn even less.

Qi Cheng paused for a moment and said, "That could work. Now that I can see, I can help you carry the heavy things to the morning market. You’ll just be responsible for frying the fried dough sticks. When the weather really turns, we’ll stop going to the morning market."

The reason he hadn’t agreed before was that she had suggested doing the morning market every day, which would have been too much for her.

Back then, his eyesight hadn’t recovered yet, but now that his eyes are better, even before the sun rises in the morning, he can help her transport the heavy items to the market without a blindfold.

Lu Yuan put the money into the money pouch and said, "Then it’s settled."

"Anyway, the East Market is close to the clinic. You can help me bring the things to the morning market, and then go to the clinic by yourself. It won’t delay anything."

After discussing and reaching an agreement, they settled the matter.

After soaking her feet, Lu Yuan went to the kitchen to steam the dough.

Qi Cheng followed closely behind.

She turned to him and said, "You don’t need to keep me company. Go back to the room."

Qi Cheng shook his head. "Even if I can’t help much, I can still keep you company."

"In the middle of the night, with no one to talk to, I’m afraid you might not be used to it."

Lu Yuan replied with a smile, "I’m not afraid."

When she first started working night shifts as a nurse, she had been scared, but she eventually got used to it.

He added, "Anyway, I can’t sleep. I’ll keep an eye on the fire. If you’re tired, go take a nap. I’ll wake you when it’s about done."

Lu Yuan shook her head. "No, I’m not very sleepy."

She shaped the buns (mantou), placed them on a bamboo sieve in the pot, and started the fire.

The autumn night was cold and brisk, but with a fire going, it was quite cozy in the small kitchen.

She sat inside the kitchen, while Qi Cheng sat with his back to her at the doorway.

Lu Yuan warmed her hands by the fire and chatted casually, "I don’t think I’ve ever asked you properly—how exactly did the accident happen? How did you injure your head back then?"

She had heard bits and pieces from others but had never questioned him closely.

Qi Cheng thought carefully before answering, "I don’t remember clearly. I only recall encountering an enormous wildcat, being cornered at the edge of a cliff, and accidentally falling."

Lu Yuan couldn’t help but grow curious. "How big was that tiger, to force you all the way down into the valley?"

Qi Cheng pondered for a moment before replying, "Heavier than two large men combined."

Hearing this, Lu Yuan felt a shiver run down her spine. She thought to herself, *That must have been over two hundred kilograms!*

Having watched plenty of animal documentaries, she knew just how powerful a tiger’s paws were.

Not everyone was born with the strength of Wu Song. It was understandable that Qi Cheng was no match for it.

It was truly lucky that he had survived an encounter with a tiger’s claws.

"You really shouldn’t go hunting in the mountains anymore. Just help me with the stall instead."

Qi Cheng sighed softly. "To be honest, I was too proud. I overestimated my abilities and ventured deep into the wilderness."

It was precisely because of this incident that Qi Cheng had become much more level-headed.

Lu Yuan said, "Whether it’s deep mountains or not, you should still avoid going there. Occasionally hunting pheasants or rabbits is one thing, but don’t make it your livelihood anymore—it’s too dangerous."

Qi Cheng chuckled. "I understand. With elders above and a wife and children below, I won’t risk my life for a living anymore."

Lu Yuan couldn’t help but laugh. "You’ve adapted to the role of a father quite quickly. It hasn’t been long, and you’re already calling us your wife and children."

Qi Cheng turned around, gazing at her blurry figure. "From the moment we became husband and wife, you, Chun Hua, and Qiu Hua have been my family."

"The only thing missing is making it true to its name."

When Lu Yuan heard the phrase "true to its name," her smile faltered.

*Was there a hidden meaning in his words?* she wondered. *Or was he hinting at something—preparing her mentally that, since his eyes were almost healed, they would soon become a real couple?*

The thought made Lu Yuan shrink back nervously.

Although she had considered what might happen later, she had the desire but not the courage.

Besides, ancient times lacked contraception methods. She didn’t want to struggle through life while carrying a child before their situation improved.

But then again, she and Qi Cheng had been sharing a bed for over a month, and he had never once overstepped. That proved he wasn’t the impatient type.

Moreover, they didn’t even have a proper bed yet. Given his character, he would surely make proper arrangements first rather than rush things.

After mulling it over, Lu Yuan felt reassured.

She replied, "Why overthink it? Whether it’s true to its name or not, we’ve already held the wedding ceremony. There’s no way I’m running away."

Hearing her last words, Qi Cheng’s heart tightened. Frowning, he seized on the key point in her reply: "You’ve thought about running away?"

Lu Yuan snapped, "I was just saying it casually, what are you thinking? I've put so much effort into you—I'd chase after you even if you tried to run."

This person was way too sensitive.

For now, not only had he spent a great deal of silver, but he also had a handsome appearance, respected others, and accommodated her in every way. In this unfamiliar era, meeting someone so wonderful—whether as a friend or a spouse—she certainly had no intention of running away or seeking a separation.

Hearing this, Qi Cheng felt a bit of relief in his heart.

But then his expression went blank.

He—was afraid she would run away?

Realizing this, Qi Cheng’s expression also grew somewhat bewildered.

It seemed he no longer saw her just as his wife.

But also as—someone he was fond of.

Qi Cheng wasn’t sure when these feelings for her had begun.

Perhaps it was when he woke up and they had their marriage ceremony, or even earlier, while he was still lying on the bed—curiosity about her had already taken root.